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SME Snapshot - May 2024
Your monthly update on the latest industry news, opportunities for SMEs, and member's announcements.
Industry News
SME Digital Adoption Taskforce
The Department for Business and Trade held the first meeting of the SME Digital Adoption Taskforce. This Taskforce will explore how SMEs can be supported to better adopt digital technology to improve their productivity.
UK Export Finance published its new 2024-29 Business Plan, setting out its intention to help firms win over £12.5 billion in new business by 2029. The plan includes more financing opportunities for smaller businesses alongside a commitment to support 1,000 SMEs a year by 2029.
Ahead of the General Election, the BVCA has outlined how the next Government could bolster economic growth and attract inward investment through private capital in the UK. Key recommendations include producing an action plan for pension investment to unlock additional investment and generate higher returns for savers, publishing an industrial strategy to provide long-term certainty for investors, and prioritising a stable and competitive tax framework.
APPG on Fair Business Banking SME Manifesto
The APPG on Fair Business Banking launched its SME manifesto, outlining how government can improve SMEs access to finance. The recommendations include turbocharging the challenger and non-bank lending sector, longer term British Business Bank (BBB) support schemes and green finance support.
Treasury Select Committee SME Finance Report
The Treasury Select Committee published its inquiry into the accessibility of funding and lending to SMEs. The Committee found small businesses are being put off from innovating and growing by damaging financial regulations and inadequate support from banks.
The UK and Ukraine have launched the InnovateUkraine programme, which will support 13 green energy innovation projects in Ukraine with a £16m investment from the UK government.
Ten teams across the country have been chosen as finalists of the inaugural Manchester Prize, a prestigious challenge prize rewarding breakthroughs in AI for public good. The finalists will each receive prizes of £100,000 to further develop their projects over the next eight months.
Opportunities
Roads Minister Guy Opperman is launched the third year of the £7 million Freight Innovation Fund Accelerator. SMEs can receive up to £1.8 million in government funding to support the freight sector in deploying cutting-edge AI technology and automation to improve the way trains, lorries, vans, and ships carry parcels and goods.
DASA Themed Competition: Contemporary Deception
The Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA) is pleased to launch a new Themed Competition called Contemporary Deception for the British Army. Run on behalf of the British Army, this competition seeks proposals that can identify and develop new (novel) deception technologies that could be utilised by the British Army to gain operational advantage and to aid the survivability of deployed UK Land Forces.
DASA Themed Competition: Delivering operational advantage
DASA has launched a new Themed Competition: Delivering operational advantage via improved self-sufficiency and operational energy innovation. The maximum value of a proposal is £500,000. We expect to fund between 5 and 20 proposals of between £50,000 and £500,000 in value.
The UK joins a world-class European supercomputing eco-system and unlocks an enhanced share of the Horizon funded portion, worth £770 million from 2021-2027. With match funding from the government, UK researchers, businesses and scientists can now bid confidently for further EuroHPC grants.
The GPA is launching a new PropTech Experience Group to enable users to collaborate, exchange ideas and foster best practice, improving the experience for any civil servants who use the GPA’s property technology. To join the group and register your interest in the event please sign up to the GPA’s Knowledge Hub group.
Member news
The UK's Crown Hosting Data Centres (CHDC) has been awarded a contract with the Bank of England for information storage colocation services. The contract will last seven years and is valued at more than £22 million ($27.41m).
Arqit Quantum and SoftIron announced a partnership to enable customers to make a seamless migration to quantum- safe cloud tasks, with a priority focus on the defense sector.
Blancco has been named a winner in the 2024 SEAL Business Sustainability Awards, an awards-driven environmental advocacy organization honoring Sustainability, Environmental Achievement, and Leadership (SEAL). Blancco’s win is in the Sustainable Service category, which recognizes innovative services that set a new standard for sustainability.
Facephi has entered into a major contract with Samsung Securities, further consolidating the company’s position in the Asia-Pacific technology market. This strategic contract, means Samsung Securities will adopt the Facephi’s solutions for its financial platform.
The contract followed recent announcement by FacePhi that they had agreed a contract with Hancom for 5 million investment from Hancom, enabling Hancom to become Facephi’s second-largest shareholder and exclusive distributor of its products in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region.
Riverlane announced the award of a £2.1m European Innovation Council (EIC) Transition grant funded by the Horizon Europe. The grant will propel the development of a quantum error decoder capable of supporting the real-time decoding of quantum operations – a crucial step to achieving quantum advantage.
Seamfix has secured $4.5 million from Alitheia IDF in a private equity funding round to scale its technology infrastructure, improve data flow crucial for continental trade and integration and kickstart the expansion of its digital ID and credential services into five new African countries.
CyberHive is launching a complete suite of threat protection modules that block current and future cyber threats to UAE businesses. As part of the launch, CyberHive is focusing on CyberHive Connect, the company’s flagship product which offers real-time intrusion detection and verification technology to protect networks from cyber threats.
RETN announced its expansion to two leading data centres in Manchester, highlighting the city's importance as a major UK hub for domestic and international network connectivity.
Lenus Health is collaborating with Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland Integrated Care Board (ICB) to digitally transform Leicester and Hinckley Community Diagnostic Centres (CDCs)’s breathlessness diagnostic pathway.
Nexor announced its strategic partnership with Oakdoor, part of PA Consulting, a pioneer in hardware-enforced security solutions. The alliance is poised to deliver more highly integrated software guarding and hardware verification solutions for sensitive and complex networks worldwide.
The Data City has marked its sixth year of consecutive growth with significant progress against its mission to build a new global industrial classification system. The company has seen turnover rise 63% to £1.25m in the financial year 23/24 and grown its team to 20.
SME Connect
With over 600 SME members, techUK understands the issues that are most relevant to the UK SME tech sector. Visit the SME Connect section of the website for all the latest insights, guidance and events, and find out how techUK can help you with a range of services, programmes and advice. If you'd like to discuss further, please contact Ed Bevan, our Head of SME Engagement.
26 June 2024
